Am I unlucky or what.

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After which game install did it stop working?

 

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That one.

 

Ah, thanks. Then that's the problem: as others have stated, Crysis Wars includes SecuROM, a CD/DVD copy protection product, which often causes weird problems like you are experiencing. Roll back to before you installed Crysis.

 

I did try that but nothing happend. I have just formatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows but the drive still doesn't read dvds, so I have put in the EIDE dvd drive in from my old computer and everything works.

So I think it proves it's not a software issue and it must be the drive most likely the lens imo.

 

Probably a duff batch as i commented before.

BTW - I thought for a moment you'd jinxed my ASUS drive too !

Went to burn an image using Nero which popped up and said the cd wasn't big enough (which was true) so I bunged in a blank dvd-r. After this, Windows (Xp Pro) refused to recognise the drive as did the Nero Info tool too.

Removed blank, closed Nero, restarted Nero - same problem - Oh No ! I thought, it's the dreaded GBL disease !

Fortunately a reboot cured all and the same blank disk worked too (tho' I did go straight in to burn the image just in case any other software was causing a prob).

Happy bunny again.

Phew !

 

lol, it seems to be that these drives are a bit flakey.

I was starting to wonder if my psu wasn't powerful enough but it must be.

 

I am gonna go for an Asus as UKDarkstar suggested, I was gonna get one originally but I went for a cheaper one model.

 

Cheers for your help everyone

 

Another possible cause of that error (I know that the drive is knackered) is you have service packs installed on top of the original installation.

thats the main problem with sfc

You have to either use a slipstreamed install cd or point a reg entry to source of the last service pack installed (ie uncompress copy on hard disk or network share).

The registry keys are found at:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Set up

-ServicePackSourcePath

it will then fetch the updated files from the service pack source instead of looking at the old versions on the cd which it cant use.

 

Thanks for the info

 

I've found LiteOn drives as being excellent - I've been buying them for the past 5+ years and they read and write anything!

Haven't looked recently for dual-layer burn or HD/BD discs, but if I was, my first thought would still be for this make.

 

Whenever possible, I buy Plextor. Worth every penny, so far.

Might also have been an incompatibility between that particular brand and the motherboard, GBL. I'd have also mentioned that perhaps you had a faulty drive controller on the mobo... but you said it didn't work on another system as well, so that's not likely the problem.

 

I also thought there must be a compatability issue, its funny how it worked for 4 hours of constant installs then just stopped though.

both mobos are Asus, I am just gonna do a search on google to see if that brings anything up.

As another note is it possible for these security progs that are built into games to disable the dvd drives firmware so it doesn't work?

 

they are apain in the @rse thoses security programs for computer games. Has anyone played Half life 2? well it was on the news that someone hacked into valve and download the game before it was due to be realeased I bought half life 2 but had big problems trying to get registation on steam to play the game!

One of my mates bought his from Game and got a message stating HL2 game had already been registered!

Also a Electronic arts Game - NFS had disc protection to stop people copying the disc and that never worked in my CDRW unless I used it in a DVD/CD - Rom player

 

Possible yes, likely no. Different drives will have slightly different flashing processes, there is no standard so the software would have to understand the flashing process of many drives and manufacturers. Most companies are concerned enough about standard DRM, actually breaking hardware with poor software would probably lead to a class action. The drives used to have an area of firmware for region registration that people could change like 4-5 times only, so it can and does happen, but generally stuff that updates firmware comes with lots of warnings.

 

So probably unlikely then, it must be some sort of compatability issue then although I have never heard of an optical drive stop working before because it's not compatible with a motherboard

 

:hhhmmm that is odd, but not unheard of. Just remind me again GBL what interface/connection was on the back of DVD Rewriter and the PSU was it modular?

 

both the hard drive and dvd writer are samsungs and SATA and yes the PSU is modular 700w. There can't be a power issue as the EIDE drive works with the same cable and in the same slot on the PSU.

Could there be a bottleneck between both samsnug devices?

no other samsung device in the other pc though

 

GBL - may have an answer for you (but not a solution).

Done some searching around sites from my days of looking into writers and medie.

Turned up this comment from June last year (07) :

There is a compatibility issue with VIA based SATA controllers. Affected are at the moment all Samsung SATA DVD writers (SH-W163A, SH-183 and SH-S203 series) connected to either VT8235, VT8237 (including A or R) southbridge or VT6420/6421A based SATA add-on-cards. The inability of upgrading firmware is well documented for the SH-W163A/VT8237 and VT8235 combination, according to a (slightly dated) document on Samsung website (PDF).
Newer VIA southbridges starting from the improved VT8237R+ seem to be not affected.

What happens exactly: Since there is something wrong in the communication between drive and controller, the OEM code of the drive isn't reported properly (Check with WinInquiry). This will cause the firmware flasher to refuse any work.
Solution: none, unless you have the opportunity to flash the drive in another computer.


The full thread (which was a review/overview of the (then) new Samsung dvd writers is here .

As I stated before, I would strongly advise against flashing the drive's firmware unless you are instructed to do so by the retailer's support people. Not to say there is anything wrong with this action but you are in a "returns" situation and need to act only under their instruction to make sure you get a refund/replacement (unless you're no longer worried about that ?).

Hope it's of help